A city for all

Looking down at the statue of Edward Colston covered in graffiti, I notice that the word ‘prick’ is written in blue spray paint across his long coat. The 17th-century slave trader deserves worse, but it feels appropriate that a city synonymous with graffiti has used the medium in protest.

My boyfriend, Leigh, and I are in M Shed, a three-floor museum on the Avon River’s Spike Island. Housed in a 1950s’ dockside transit shed, the venue tells the story of Bristol — including that of the Colston statue being toppled by an impassioned crowd during last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests. We learn that the bronze statue has a long history of hate — calls for it to be removed go back years. In 1998, “Fuck off slave trader” was painted across it, and in 2018, it was decorated with shackles — albeit knitted ones.

Also at the M Shed is the Vanguard exhibition (on until the end of October). Devoted to the four-decade history and evolution of Bristol’s illegal street art scene, it takes us back to the early 80s